NEC e616 Review

Overall Rating

-2 VGA cameras with still & MPEG4 video capture & sound
-Handsfree function
-Large Display with a small 2 line LCD outer display
-2 batteries
-expandable memory
-Bluetooth

-Awful sound quality
-Confusing user interface
-Poorly laid out keys with poor interface response
-Poor battery life of standard battery
-Limited Bluetooth connectivity
-Poor audio network quality

Like many people we have been seduced by the advertising by 3. With their hugely discounted handsets and huge voice bundle allowances, even on their pay as you go tariffs I'd thought I'd give it a go and purchased a NEC 616v 3G handset.

When I opened up the box I found the handset to be over twice the size as my Sony Erricson T630 when flipped opened. The key layout/user interface is a little confusing with the "back" button and "cancel" being the same in some cases. Text messaging is also a little annoying with no option for "own dictionary" to add your own words.

On the plus side the home screen could be accustomed to have quick access to certain parts of the menu such as "video files", "Bluetooth", etc. Plus the top left soft key fast access the video/photo function with upto VGA quality video/photo capture. You have a number of settings in quality, size and contrast of video/photo capture. One of the odd aspects of the video capture is the "short/long" setting which you have and can't shorten or extend. So if you are shooting a video on the phone and you've got what you've captured you have to keep shooting until the time is complete. There is the option for sound capture as well with video.

There is also a bright LED white light to aid in low light conditions, although you need to be within a metre to be effective.

The onboard memory is pretty generous with just under 10mb of ram and the ability to use Sony Memory Stick Pro cards is handy as well, but be warned that the maximum size is 128mb and can only be removed/inserted when the phone is switched off.

The handset comes with 2 batteries. The standard battery runs at 3.7volts at 780mAh and claim a running time of 86hrs standby, 131mins talk time and 90mins Video call time. The extended battery is again 3.7volts, but 1800mAh with 140hrs standby, 214mins talk time & 147mins video call time, this battery is twice the size though and sticks out of the phone.

In realistic conditions the standard battery will last just over 24hrs with a total of 30 mins of voice calls & no video. The extended battery fairs much better with up to 3 days on standby after about 1 hour worth of voice calls.

You can't really comment on how good a handset is without talking a little bit about the network that it accesses, especially with the unique way 3G is.

Audio call quality is decidedly poor with a pre-Enhanced Audio Quality as standard. Comparing it to T-mobile, Orange & O2 (Nokia 3310, Sony Erricson T300 & T630 respectively) the audio seems to have completely stripped down to the bare essential with what I belief to be a greater bandwidth compression by 3G.

Even when I'm in my 1 bedroom flat moving from living room to bed room could mean dropping a call. Even when I have at least 2/3 bars out of 5. This is not a promising thought since not only do you access to 3G for audio, but when there is no 3G coverage audio calls are made via the O2 network.

3G content can be access be a dedicated hotkey and when in a 3G coverage area which is symbolised by 3 green circles in a triangle formation. At present you can only access 3G pages including news headlines, weather, entertainment news, football movie clips. Theses are at a cost varying from 25p to £1.50 with ringtones downloads at £2.50 a shot. There are also train timetables and find a pub/cinema, etc at various extra costs. All video/3G content is delivered at GPRS/UTMS speed.

One of the main reasons why I purchased this particular handset is of the Bluetooth facility onboard. Imagine my surprise when I attempted to send my current phonebook details from my T630 and the NEC phone stated that it "could not connect". There's no physical limitation within the manual, but the 3G network was restricted the use of Bluetooth connectivity to audio and computers. You cannot connect to any other phone. The unit comes with a USB cable and software to transfer items from the phone to PC and vice versa.

This is the case with all 3G Bluetooth enabled handsets, which is pretty annoying but understandable. 3G don't want their video/audio content to be able to pass onto another handset. This is so that 3G keep a monopoly on the content and make other users access this content via them. There is a 2.5mm headset jack for corded handfree operation which comes the phone.

Conclusion

The handset in it self is not too bad with a number of excellent functions including photo and video capture, but the basic aspects such as voice call quality and reliability is flawed as is the poor standard battery life of the handset.

This is a mixture of the failings of the handset and network and although the high bundle of inclusive minutes is tempting the actually call experience is poor. It reminds me of the early days of Mecury/One2One (aka T-mobile) which I had subscribed to for over 4 years.

Although I have painted a rather sour picture there has been some good news in the form of the Motorola E1000 handset receiving favourable reviews, which I look forward to getting my hands on in the next few months